The GOAT of gymnastics will be front and center at the Tokyo Olympics.
Simone Biles will have a chance to break the record for Olympic gold medals won by a U.S. woman after taking home four golds in Rio de Janeiro. Biles is the favorite to repeat in various individual events at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
While Biles is the top draw, there are other women and men from the U.S. and across the globe vying to make the Olympic podium in individual gymnastics events.
Here is the schedule, streaming information and more heading into the gymnastics competitions in Tokyo:
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning. >Sign up for NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
Where can I stream men’s and women’s gymnastics online?
Below is the full event and streaming schedule for individual artistic gymnastics at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. NBCOlympics.com will have Team USA tracker streams throughout the Games.
- Men’s Subdivision 1 qualification: Friday, July 23, 9 p.m. ET (Stream)
- Men’s Subdivision 2 qualification: Saturday, July 24, 1:30 a.m. ET (Stream)
- Men’s Subdivision 3 qualification: Saturday July 24, 6:30 a.m. ET (Stream, Team USA tracker)
- Women’s Subdivision 1 qualification: Saturday, July 24, 8:30 p.m. ET (Stream)
- Women’s Subdivision 2 qualification: Saturday, July 24, 10:50 p.m. ET (Stream)
- Women’s Subdivision 3 qualification: Sunday, July 25, 2:10 a.m. ET (Stream, Team USA tracker)
- Women’s Subdivision 4 qualification: Sunday, July 25, 4:05 a.m. ET (Stream)
- Women’s Subdivision 5 qualification: Sunday, July 25, 7:20 a.m. ET (Stream)
- Men’s individual all-around final: Wednesday, July 28, 6 a.m. ET (Stream, Team USA tracker)
- Women’s individual all-around final: Thursday, July 29, 6:45 a.m. ET (Stream)
- Event finals for men’s floor exercise, women’s vault, men’s pommel horse and women’s uneven bars: Sunday, Aug. 1, 4 a.m. ET (Stream)
- Event finals for men’s rings, women’s floor exercise and men’s vault: Monday, Aug. 2, 4 a.m. ET (Stream)
- Event finals for men’s parallel bars, women’s balance beam and men’s horizontal bar: Tuesday, Aug. 3, 4 a.m. ET (Stream)
NBC Olympics’ full viewing schedule can be found here.
Tokyo Olympics
Watch all the action from the Tokyo Games Live on NBC
What gymnastics events are in the Olympics?
There are seven individual gymnastics events for men and five for women at the Olympics. For the men, there is floor exercise, pommel horse, rings, vault, parallel bars, horizontal bar and individual all-around. For the women, there is floor exercise, vault, uneven bars, balance beam and individual all-around.
Qualification for all individual and team events takes place within subdivisions -- three for men and five for women. In Tokyo, both the U.S. men’s and women’s teams will be in Subdivision 3 for their respective competition. From there, the team all-around final, individual all-around final and individual event finals take place.
All of the gymnastics competitions for the Tokyo Olympics will be held at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre.
Who are the favorites in gymnastics at the Tokyo Olympics?
The United States won the most gymnastics medals at the 2016 Rio Olympics with 12, the most gold medals with four and most silver medals with six. Russia was just behind the U.S. with 11 total, three gold and five silver. Both nations figure to be among the heavyweights once again in Tokyo.
Biles is responsible for all four of those U.S. golds, winning the team all-around, individual all-around, vault and floor exercise, and also took home a bronze medal in the balance beam. Based on her recent performances, she is in line to take home more hardware this summer. Biles had the top marks in vault, balance beam, floor and all-around at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June, even though it appeared she was saving some of her best work for the Olympics themselves.
Still, there are other members of Team USA who could be battling for the podium.
Suni Lee put together the highest score in the uneven bars and balance beam at the trials and will be among the contenders in those events in Tokyo. Her second-place finish in the individual all-around behind Biles also bodes well for a strong performance at the Olympics.
Jordan Chiles, Grace McCallum, MyKayla Skinner and Jade Carey round out the U.S. women’s gymnastics squad. Chiles took home three medals at the trials while Skinner earned a silver in vault. Carey, though she didn’t compete at the trials and will not be a part of the team event, has a chance to contend in vault after claiming silver at the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
Looking around the globe, China’s Tang Xijing, Russia’s Angelina Melnikova and Switzerland's Giulia Steingruber will be names to watch in individual events.
On the men’s side, the U.S. squad is made up of Brody Malone, Sam Mikulak, Yul Moldauer, Shane Wiskus and Alec Yoder. Mikulak had the highest finish in an individual event of any American man at the 2019 world championships with a fifth-place performance in the horizontal bar. He also did the best of any American man in the individual all-around, placing seventh. At the U.S. Olympic Trials, Malone won the individual all-around and horizontal bar, Mikulak won the floor, Yoder won the pommel horse and Moldauer won the parallel bars.
Looking around the world, Russia won the team event at the 2019 world championships while China won silver and Japan won gold, so expect strong individual outings from athletes from those countries at the Olympics. The United States and Great Britain came in fourth and fifth place, respectively.
Great Britain’s Max Whitlock comes in as the defending Olympic champion in the floor exercise and pommel horse. Russia’s Nikita Nagornyy is another key name to watch as he aims to win in vault and help the Russian team jump to the top of the podium after taking silver in Rio.
Another returning Olympic champion will be looking to win gold in his home country. Japan’s Kohei Uchimura won gold in team and individual all-around at the 2016 Olympics, but he will solely be an event specialist in the horizontal bar in his fourth and final Olympics.
